Ahead of home finale, what have Washington's seniors learned?
An eclectic group of seniors will play at Husky Stadium for the final time. What do they know now that they wish they'd known at the start of their careers?
SEATTLE — Altogether, coach Jedd Fisch said, the Washington Huskies plan to honor 26 players during their annual “senior night” ceremony prior to Friday’s home finale against UCLA.
UW’s roster lists 21 seniors, though Fisch indicated a few players with eligibility remaining — such as offensive lineman Gaard Memmelaar and running back Sam Adams II — have chosen to walk in the ceremony, even if it remains possible some could return in 2025.
Washington has never had a roster quite like this 2024 version, and so the Huskies have never had such a unique mix of seniors. Of the 21 listed on the roster, 20 are on scholarship, though that number includes tight end Quentin Moore, whom Fisch has said will attempt to return in 2025 after missing this season due to injury, and defensive lineman Logan Sagapolu, who has a year of eligibility left.
Not counting Moore and Sagapolu, 10 of the remaining 18 scholarship seniors transferred to UW from four-year schools — including eight just this season — and another, Thaddeus Dixon, came from junior college. Voi Tunuufi is the lone senior from the 2021 recruiting class, and Carson Bruener is the only current senior who signed in 2020.
This year’s senior class also includes the final five players to have played for Chris Petersen — running back Cam Davis, linebackers Alphonzo Tuputala and Drew Fowler, defensive lineman Jacob Bandes and safety Kamren Fabiculanan. All signed with the Huskies in 2019. Bandes, Davis and Fabiculanan were four-star recruits; Tuputala and Fowler were three-star prospects, and Fowler, a Bellevue product, chose to walk on at UW despite scholarship offers from schools like Utah and UCLA.
That group is playing for its fourth head coach at UW; Bruener, Tunuufi, Moore and receiver Giles Jackson are playing for their third.
Fowler, Tuputala, Fabiculanan and Davis spoke with reporters on Tuesday, along with Jackson and senior center D’Angalo Titialii. That’s a cross-section representative of the group as a whole: four seniors who spent six seasons at UW; another, Jackson, who spent four years after transferring from Michigan; and another, Titialii, who joined the program this summer as a portal reinforcement in Fisch’s first season.
Earlier this season, Bandes, a regular starter for the first time as a senior, spoke about learning how to make better use of his time as his career wore on.
“I don’t want these guys to make the same mistakes with the time that they spend, the way I spent my time here,” Bandes said, asked about setting an example for younger players. “I don’t want them to be here for six years, the way I did.”
As they prepare for their final game at Husky Stadium, I asked six of Bandes’ fellow sixth-year seniors what their careers taught them about how to be a college football player.
What do they know now that they wish they’d known then?
Giles Jackson: “Details matter. Details separate you, anybody, any time. Just locking in. Everything you do is being watched, regardless of what you’re doing. I feel like earlier in my career, I rarely went to the training room. Just a young cat going out there and playing football.
“But sometimes coaches see that and (think), ‘OK, maybe he’s not invested in his body as he should be.’ Just growing up, knowing what you’ve got to do to get to the next level and making sure everybody sees that and are taking you serious.”
Cam Davis: “I echo what Giles said — taking care of your body. Coming in as a young guy, you kind of take that for granted. You don’t need to stretch or warm up as much. But when you get older, all those things are vital. I’d also say just preparing for adversity. That’s kind of how life is — it’s not really ‘if,’ it’s ‘when.’
“So just having a mindset to be able to push through anything — the sooner you kind of accept that, the stronger you’ll be, the sooner you can overcome the obstacle. Just the fact that adversity is inevitable, and you’re going to have to fight through a lot of things in the college process.”
D’Angalo Titialii: “Like these guys said, take care of your body, eating the right food, not eating a lot of bad food. Try to eat healthy and make sure my body’s right for the next game.”
Alphonzo Tuputala: “I’d say just the value of time. You hear that every year, when the seniors talk. ‘It’s going to creep up on you quick, it’s going to creep up on you quick.’ Now that we’re here, this is when you take it in, but for me personally, it hits me the most when I’m actually in it. So I would say just the value of time. Not just in college, but obviously life itself.”
Kamren Fabiculanan: “Coach Pete, when I first got here, said it (at) my first fall camp: ‘The days are long, but your time here is short.’ I think not taking anything for granted, any practice or anything like that, as a young player, knowing that I’ve got years ahead of me. I try to shoot that message down to the younger players now, that it goes by fast. It definitely does. I didn’t think of that when I was a freshman, but being here now, it really does go by fast.
Drew Fowler: “I would definitely say just the value of being process oriented instead of results oriented. We live in a sport (in which) you get 12 guaranteed opportunities and you practice year-round like a full-time job. You probably practice 5, 6, 7x what it is to get to play, as opposed to a basketball player or a baseball player (who have) games instead of practice. Really, just that love of the grind.
“It’s easy to say that in high school, when it’s kind of your choice, and, ‘oh, I’ll wake up when I want,’ and you get here and it’s no joke. And those slight edges, those things we chase all offseason. It’s Seattle, it’s February, it’s dark at 3 o’clock, you’re in here at 6 a.m., you’re leaving at 5 p.m., your season doesn’t even start for six, seven more months — that’s the fun part, and that’s the part where a freshman takes a while to figure that out.
“But you get to being an old head like us, and those are the moments that you love, and that’s the part where you’re cracking jokes and bonding with your teammates through those hard workouts — that’s the fun stuff.”
— Christian Caple, On Montlake
Love the comments from the guys. Thanks for the story, Christian.
I've been wondering how the NIL/Transfer Portal era would impact our view of players. I can only speak for myself, but I still appreciate that these players put on the uniforms that represent Washington and all it stands for. Stories like this with player voices make it easy to cheer for them.
Need the W this weekend to get to a bowl for these seniors!
Those boys endured much change, had a few doses of adversity and experienced generational success on the field. They grew up before our eyes and I’m thankful they chose to become -and remain - Dawgs. DFL!